Anger, awards and alternatives

Bill O'Reilly, a highly objectionable news presenter, argues with the awesome Laura Berman about the acceptability of a lesbian couple being voted "cutest couple" for their yearbook.



These competitions never sat well with me when I was at school, because they basically pandered to the popularity contest that was the whole of high school, and my social standing wasn't great in terms of the mainstream. During my last year at college, we had one of those awards ceremonies - run by the student union - and I got really angry with the categories - "nicest bum" "most attractive" "biggest geek" etc etc. My friends and I set up alternative awards with categories like "kindest person" "most unique" and "most likely to stand up for what they believe in". We even made our own DIY medals out of ribbon, cardboard and tinfoil, (the official awards had a bit of money to have framed certificates). Votes were collected in our space - the common room. We held our ceremony in the packed common room at break, while the other awards went out in the less packed sports hall.

As much as it was a protest about our exclusion from the mainstream awards, I don't think we set them up to compete or to try to disenfranchise them. It was an alternative which was a celebration of our difference from the mainstream - our different values, and different ethos - as well as a criticism of that mainstream. We showed that we valued our own, alternative group and said "fuck you" to those who didn't appreciate us.

This was pretty problematic in its own way (as in, why should 20 people out of 200 get recognition? Even if we did doctor the results so no-one got two awards and so that those who maybe felt more left out had a bit of an advantage. Which is, I guess in itself problematic...). But the idea that a lesbian couple should win cutest couple has some interesting tensions - as far as I can tell, the yearbook phenomenon in the US (please correct me if I'm wrong!) is the kind of mainstream popularity contest that we were so angry about. Obviously, it's a really encouraging sign that a lesbian couple can enter the mainstream in this way. It points to a greater acceptance, and obviously will make other gay couples feel better and more confident. It definitely makes me happy that it's happening. But it got me thinking about my experience of school, and made me remember the whole alternative awards saga. The award that the lesbian couple got still celebrates a mainstream, and by definition is exclusive in some way or another. I know it sounds kinda hippyish, but it would be really nice if everyone could just be appreciated for who they are. So it's definitely a step forward in that the range of things that are acceptable has widened - and that's incredibly important for people's day-to-day wellbeing - but the ethos that says that you have to be judged is still there. I'm not sure what I'm really trying to say, other than that it bears some thought, and like our alternative awards, that it's fraught with difficulties and tensions.

That said, Laura Berman is my new hero. I like the bit where she just laughs at him.

speaking of advertising...

Now in contrast to the tissue issue, THIS is an ad that makes it absolutely CLEAR why men need to buy the fucking car. Despite the fact that they are all being enslaved by their overbearing wives, forced to listen to meaningless gossip all day and aren't even allowed to throw their dirty undies on the floor in their own home (can you imagine?), the solution is simple. DRIVE. THIS. CAR. It's viagra on wheels. Oh yeah, and it was broadcast during this year's superbowl.

Clearly, they can afford much more skilled marketing and PR staff. I am still rather bored with this codswallop. Dodge, if you really want to offend me, at least make the effort to come up with something new.

just a box of tissues...

but you can still do something odd with it. I was amazed when i walked through a supermarket and found this. First thought that popped up in my mind: wtf?
Seriously - i have seen many many things, but i did not expect to be tongue-tied just because of a box of tissues.
What is it telling us anyway? I would be glad if you share your opinions with me.

thon wey and invisibility.

Lovely person that he is, Brian Dempsey has compiled and published a brochure on Scottish Lesbian and Gay activism between 1968 and 1992, available in PDF and titled 'Thon Wey'. As a Gender Historian, this makes me shriek with excitement, even more so because, if all goes as planned, I shall encounter Brian Dempsey tomorrow at an LGBT History Month meeting at the University of Dundee. Most of all, I can't help but smirk at the memory of my lecturer telling me a couple of weeks ago that there is no such thing as an LGBTI scene in Scotland and nothing EVER happens here. This leaves me with the question: Am I too obsessed with the subject or is he just plain blind? Possibly this has to do with him being from Toronto - the contrast in visibility must be staggering.

Anyway, Dempsey's brochure about nothing can be downloaded here.

Bodies, essentialism and the shock factor - some thoughts on Femstruation week.

A note before I start... I come from a socialist background, where it's totally normal to write this kind of article – newspapers will usually publish critiques of themselves, and the atmosphere in discussion means that it's OK to do constructive criticism, (usually) without anyone taking it personally. I'm very aware that feminism in Edinburgh doesn't really have that same culture, particularly anarchafeminism,because it's based on more ad hoc groups, and doesn't really have the structure or media for it. My instinct when I realised just how uncomfortable I was with Femstruation week was to write it down, but I just wanted to write this proviso first: I write this out of respect – because I have huge respect for the organisers, and because feminism is a really big deal for me. This is not a personal attack, and the reason that I feel the need to write it is because it was so impressively organised, and the organisers so passionate and dedicated, that I think that it would do them a disservice not to write it. The point of it is to spark some discussion, so please comment!

Femstruation week was, as it was described to me, about breaking taboos around menstruation. The idea is that none of us should feel embarrassed or uncomfortable about our periods, and that we should all be comfortable with the fact that we bleed once a month, knowledgeable about how it works, and able to take care of ourselves effectively. It took the form of a series of workshops, art exhibitions and performance-orientated events. Their blog is here.

I guess my first question was, why a whole week? I agree that none of us should be freaked out by our periods, and that it would be nice not to have to whisper when asking to borrow a tampon, or, in my case, have people look at me like I'm crazy if I wash out my mooncup in a public bathroom. But the idea of a whole week seemed kind of strange to me. Why put all this effort into taboos about one bodily function when there are so many terrifying issues to be dealt with by feminism? I have to say, my period is not the worst thing about being female-bodied – the unfair pay; the possibility of domestic violence and rape; hell, even just being taken less seriously – they bother me much more. So I guess what I'm saying is, I'm all for these stated goals, but I wasn't sure why there had to be a whole week on them. Why not hold a week of feminist events, or even on a topic like body image, and have a day on menstruation?

As the planning process went on, though, I started to notice a different emphasis going on: the idea of celebrating being a women via menstruation. If this was that goal, then a week makes more sense – but this is the idea that makes me uncomfortable. I'm not sure that I want to celebrate being a woman as such. I mean, I'm not ashamed of it, and I damn well think that I'm as good as any male bodied person, but my aim is to get rid of the idea that we're defined by the sex that society has assigned us, not to perpetuate essentialist ideas about what it means to be a woman. I think the thing to celebrate is all the possibilties that we have, rather than any particular formation of femininity.

I think that maybe Femstruation week did end up essentialisng women, defining “woman” as“someone who menstruates”. On the one hand, this is exclusive because not everyone who is female bodied menstruates – pre-pubescent girls, people who've has the contraceptive injection, post-menopausal women, people with polycystic ovaries or another condition that means they don't menstruate. On the other hand (and as a queer person I think that this is a huge deal), it completely ignores those who identify as a woman without being female bodied, and those who are female bodied, but do not identify as a woman. This excludes a huge number of people who should be engaged with feminism, and it marginalises and alienates people who are already sidelined by society.

This idea comes dangerously close to defining women as mothers, as fertile, as closer to nature. While motherhood is brave and important, and while I value my fertility, our feminist forebears put a lot of effort into making sure the we precisely weren't defined as this. (And as for being closer to nature, I think men should probably be closer to nature as well, what with the threat from climate change.) What our bodies are like shouldn't define who we have to be. While I think it's important that the activities that have been traditionally devalued as female (like baking, or cleaning, or looking after kids) are appreciated for the necessities that they are, the clusters of actions and expressions that society has assigned the name “female” to are not essentially tied to our wombs; the ties are breakable, and I spend a lot of time trying to cut them. All genders should be able to be mechanics or nursery nurses depending on what they fancy doing; and all genders should pull their weight when it comes to childcare and cleaning and thinking about nature too.

I think that all this is worthy of discussion, for sure. It's true that we're made to feel rubbish about our bodies sometimes, but menstruation is by no means the only thing that's an issue. What's more, it's a topic that needs careful handling, in that shame is a pretty powerful emotion – if we're being made to feel ashamed of our bodies by society, we have to be careful about how we present discussions on that, to negotiate this feeling rather than just bulldozing it, because it's not so easily avoidable. I think that the explicitness of a lot of the art and publicity probably made people feel uncomfortable rather than engaging with them, and I object to playing with people's feelings for shock value. I think that, because of this, Femstruation week ended up attracting people who already feel relatively ok with their bodies. It became a celebration by these people of the way that they experience their womanhood, which is fine – but I'm not sure how radical that really is. For me, feminism is about reaching out and engaging people, and affecting change. The scope of Femstruation week was limited to a relatively exclusive set of people, and while it was fun in a lot of ways, it was a real shame that it couldn't engage a wider variety of people in discussion and activism.

Why Ke$ha wants to be a man

Ke$ha on being a man:

'I would have a SICK beard, I would pee outside, and aim on stuff.. I wouldn't wear underwear, or a bra.. I would not have to wear high heels, no make up - this is amazing.. I would do a lot of other things too though'


Ke$ha on Shakira's bum (pardon the innuendo):

'I talked to her on the phone the other day and she was like 'I like your song', and I couldn't help it, I was like, 'I like your butt', 'cos I do...'


Via.

I can already tell I'm going to be the lowbrow element in this blog...

another very useful page... linsert.org.

The bibliography totally saved my ass these last couple of days. I feel like sending Brian Dempsey flowers for setting this up.

body image highlights and horrors online.

Kate's post started me thinking about blogs and websites dealing with body image and assessment by anonymous strangers. There are quite a few of them around, and this can't be just because people have too much free time. And there is a gendered component to most of them - I'm sure there are websites dealing with masculinity (if you have any in mind, please share), but the vast majority of those I've come accross dealt with women's bodies.

It reminds me of 19th century narratives about the gendered nature of the voyeurism, suggesting that the gaze is inherently male and the object of the gaze female. Just have a look at some of the iconic impressionist paintings - many of Degas' dancers, for example. I'm not goint to go into a detailed analysis of the imagery and moral connotations of dancers that would have been obvious to the artist's contemporaries. But we see a lot of bare skin, necks, breasts, legs. And in the centre of the picture, we see a dark, male silhouette - easily identifiable by the top hat. He is a shadow figure, scrutinising the young women, but invisible to them. And all of the women are looking downwards or have their eyes closed - they are not even gazing at one another. They are solely on display for the male spectator.

It seems almost as though the internet is just another way of telling the same old story. And while assessing breasts is twisted enough, I have seen worse. Have a look at this charming website, Guess Her Muff. Yes, that's right. Faithful readers are presented with a more or less fully clothed image of a woman, only to speculate about the way she fashions her pubic hair. If anyone had any doubt as to whether this is a cheap substitute for porn, the comments men leave will remove them. The tone of many comments and the elaboration of what they wish they could do to their object of choice is absolutely sickening. The worst thing about this website is that I get the strong impression that these women have no bloody idea where their photos ended up. It seems like a blog for scorned ex-boyfriends to get a bit of revenge.

But that's not so say there's no way to blog constructively about body image. There is. So I'd like to close on a positive note and introduce The Belly Project, a website I like a lot. Here, women post pictures of their midriff anonymously and suppy information about their age, past pregnancies, abortions, surgery and so on. The idea is that women get a chance to blatantly stare at other women's bodies and realise how unrealistic images in magazines really are. Bodies change, life leaves traces, and that's absolutely fine. Also, not everyone looks like a topmodel in the first place, natural healthy bodies do come in all shapes and sizes.

Ladies, if you want to boost your confidence online, try a website like that, not one where pubescent dickheads rate your breasts.

I put my boobs on AssessMyBreasts.com

Assess My Breasts is a website run by Nuts magazine which someone told me about a while ago. It’s fairly horrendous: women post beheaded photos of themselves displaying their mammaries to be rated by Nuts readers.

The average Nuts reader, judging by the website, is a fan of boobs so large they look like they would cause serious lower back pain, accompanied by waists so small that lower back pain would be fucking excruciating. This is not to criticise them at all, but it is a worrying body preference trend in terms of one’s health. I have large boobs and a small waist. I’m a 30E. (Small back measurement, large cup size.) Yet compared to some of the women on the site I felt positively fat and flat chested.

When I uploaded my breasts I was hopeful I would get a good score. I’ve had a lot of compliments from ex-boyfriends and girlfriends about them, and if no one else does, I absolutely love them. They’re soft and round and comfortable and they balance out my huge hips.

At first, it was looking good. I was at 7.9. I could deal with that. That was good. But my score seemed to keep getting lower until I was only at 6.7. Still above average I suppose but that wasn’t good enough for me. I’m pretty arrogant and when recently some scumbag guy told me he thought I was a 6 and a half I assumed he was a gross twit who had read that disgusting ‘dating’ book ‘The Game’ and had picked up tips on ‘negging’ – making good-looking women feel insecure by giving them half-compliments and insults dressed up as compliments. Like a friend of mine who was told she had a nice overbite. ‘Bugs bunny is my favourite TV character’ he apparently said. Swine. So I tend to think I’m pretty fit, not that itt really matters.

Anyway, yes I got 6.7. I was not happy.

And then I realised I was a queer feminist who had put my breasts on there to see what happened, how it was processed and how the website worked; not because I required confirmation from dickheads.

So I remembered, I’m intelligent, confident, and I have a personality and a brain as well as a body. I have strong convictions and friends and family who love me. Why the hell did I care?

A mainstream magazine such as Nuts should not be putting women through this. It’s sick that I, a confident queer feminist, actually gave a shit. And it’s horrible to think that some of the women on that website will give more of a shit than I do. It’s actually rank.

Three words: Fuck. That. Shit.

Who’s with me?

'a very british sex scandal' on 4oD and oscar wilde turning in his grave.

A slightly bizarre documentary about the story behind the Wolfenden Comittee on 4oD... it's entertaining and, given that it's channel 4, it could be much worse. But seriously, you'd think that channel 4 had enough money to maybe phone a historian when they script something like this. Or maybe just google.

Because stating that the Wildeblood trial was the first scandal of its kind in Britain ist just blatantly untrue and a bit embarrassing. Ever since the printed mass media opened up a dialogue with the public there have been reports about sex scandals, police investigation and courtroom drama. What's true today was just as true 130 years ago: if it's about sex, it's definitely in the papers. And as the whole documentary is arranged around the subject of decriminalising male homosexuality, you'd really think they'd had a look at some of the easily accessible databases documenting criminalisation, such as the Old Baily Online. Needless to say, the documentary is pretty whiggish, making it seem like a fast and inevitable course of events from the Wildeblood trial *pling* to the Wolfenden Comittee *pling* to a change in law *pling*.

Dear channel 4: you tried. Try again, and keep the cast. They're hot.

boulton and park...

... as Fanny and Stella around 1870.

a gender variance who's who.

Just a little something to browse.

To get us started...

An LGBT oral history of Edinburgh -

Remember When

edwin morgan - strawberries.

There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates
laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air

in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you

let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates

(Translator, university lecturer and first Scots Makar Edwin Morgan has published plenty of poetry in his lifetime, many of his love poems not being gender specific. On his seventieth birthday, he publicly came out as gay).

Queer geeks unite...

So I live in this bubble of queer geeks. It's kind of awesome, we share links and articles and things, if in a very haphazard manner. We have the kind of discussions that change the way I think all the time.

In academia, there's not a huge amount of feminism or queer politics readily available, so it seems like a good idea to share - not just with people who are writing papers about something related, but with anyone who want to engage, to airs some views or test an argument, to share anything that needs sharing. So have a read, and share. Get in touch if you want in.